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These News paper articles were sent to me by the news paper and library many years ago.These were scanned on my computer.

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Great Basin Murders

apbnews.com Staff
At least nine dead. Last body found: Aug. 15, 1997

THE HOMICIDES

Authorities in Utah, Wyoming, Nevada and Idaho are investigating the deaths of at least nine women as serial crimes, according to Lt. Mike King of the Utah attorney general's office. King and Provo Police Department Chief Greg Cooper, a former FBI profiling expert, are co-coordinators of Utah Criminal Tracking Analysis Project (UTAP), a project that brings together separate agencies investigating these cases.

The majority of the women were killed within the last 10 years, however one case dates to 1983. Investigators believe there are at least two killers responsible.

Some investigators involved believed that the same person was responsible for killing three of the victims between 1990 and 1993. These slayings occurred in Millard and Juab counties in Utah, and in Elko, Nev. There was also a killing in St. George, Utah, in 1991 that was thought to also be linked to this sub-cluster. However, in March 1999 police arrested the husband of the Juab County victim and charged him with her murder. It's unknown how this links to the other cases, according to authorities.

VICTIMS At least four of the victims have still not been identified. All of the victims were women. Some were hitchhikers, prostitutes or women who frequented truck stops. However, at least one victim was described by police as "an all-American girl."

SUSPECTS(S)/PERSON(S) OF INTEREST According to information from a report released by UTAP, there is the suspicion that one offender may be familiar with the Casper, Wyo., area, where one of the bodies was found. This victim was thought to have been held for eight days before being slain, police said.

In February 1999 the Florida Department of Law Enforcement contacted the Juab County Sheriff's Office in response to a 1991 Jane Doe that Juab County had entered into the National Crime Information Commission computer network. Florida authorities had a missing person they thought might be a match. After some investigation the woman was identified as Barbara Kaye Williams. On March 3, authorities subsequently traveled to Florida and charged her husband, Howell Williams, with her murder.

M.O. A number of the victims were found nude. At least eight of the women were found off highways or interstates.

Some of the bodies appeared to be posed or displayed by the killer(s). Several were sexually abused and killed by multiple gunshots from a small-caliber weapon.

One victim, found off Interstate 15 in 1990 in Millard County, Utah, was found naked, posed on her back, arms out to her side (palms turned upward) in the shape of a cross. Her legs were spread slightly apart and her hair, a French braid, carefully laid out to the side, an investigator said.

According to Millard County Sgt. John Kimball, Williams' body, found in neighboring Juab County off I-15 in 1991, and a body found in Elko, Nev., in 1993 near an offramp on Interstate 80 were posed in an almost identical manner. A woman found slain in St. George, Utah, in 1991 may also be related to these three cases. That victim was found partially undressed, east of I-15. Kimball said it appeared as if the killer was interrupted.

The Millard County victim was shot four times in the head and one time in the neck. The victim in Juab County was shot eight times in the head. The victim in St. George was shot six times in the head.

The body of one of the victims showed signs of "extreme sexual activity." She was found in a river in Casper, Wyo., with six deep stab wounds to her chest. None of the stab wounds hit her ribs, which, according to the case review press release, "possibly indicated the suspect had medical training." Five of the wounds were patterned in the shape of fingers on a hand.

EVIDENCE Casings or bullets were found at three sites where bodies were discovered.

STATUS OF CASE Under the auspices of UTAP, personnel from local law enforcement agencies as well as personnel from the state hospital, the medical examiner's office and the state attorney general's office meet on a regular basis to review the cases, develop leads and exchange information

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/200...s/25201229.html

Monday, November 08, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

1993 murder victim honored

Headstone placed at Elko County grave of still unidentified woman


THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ELKO -- Eleven years after her nude body was found along a lonely stretch of Interstate 80 in northeast Nevada, an unidentified murder victim has been honored with the placement of a headstone at her grave.

Local law enforcement authorities, residents and members of the Committee Against Domestic Violence attended a ceremony last week at the Elko County Cemetery for the young victim known only as Shafter Jane Doe.

Her body was found Nov. 16, 1993, at I-80's Shafter exit. She was beaten and died of gunshot wounds to the chest and back. She still has not been identified, and the case remains unsolved.

Elko Police Chief Clair Morris, who was undersheriff in 1993, said the case took "quite a toll" on investigators.

"It's not that they didn't do a good job because they did. But we didn't have a lot to go on," Morris said. "Hopefully one day we'll have someone come forward. ... It's frustrating for law enforcement to have cases like this. It drives you nuts."

Pastor Dick Wright of Faith Lutheran Church, who led the closing prayer, said the community has hoped for years that the woman would be identified. "That hope has all but now disappeared," he said. "With her headstone, we are claiming her as one of our own. Now we will regard her as one of our greater community. We honor her as best we can and bless her as one of our own."

At the urging of the Committee Against Domestic Violence, the woman was buried and remembered at a funeral service at the cemetery 11 years ago.

The committee was asked to act as her family by Burns Funeral Home of Elko. Burns donated the headstone.

Investigators are hoping the ceremony stirs up new leads. Sheriff's Sgt. Dale Lotspeich said there are a couple of theories as to who killed her: a serial killer or an acquaintance who took her clothes to make identifying her difficult.